Contents

Zabit Samedov was born in Georgia into an Azerbaijani family and moved to Minsk when he was 10 years old.[2][3] He started practicing martial arts at the age of 9. At very first he studied karate for 6 months under Aziz Dursunov, then switched to Muay Thai. In 1998, he joined Chinuk Gym, a well known gym based in Minsk. He trained with Alexey Ignashov and Sergei Gur under the management of his trainer Dmitriy Pyasetsky.[4]

He was recruited by top martial arts organization K-1 after achieving several titles in various events between 2004 and 2006. He began to fight with consistency by attaining the title of K-1 Fighting Network in Riga in 2006 in Latvia.

He faced Xavier Vigney at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2012 in Tokyo Final 16 on October 14, 2012[7][8] and totally outclassed the young American, flooring him three times in the first round to win via TKO.[9]

A third fight with Badr Hari took place at Legend 1 in Moscow, Russia on May 25, 2013.[20] Samedov dropped Hari late in round one, and sent him to the canvas again with a left hook in the second. Although Hari seemed lucid, he stayed on his knees and did not beat the count, giving Samedov the KO victory.[21][22][23][24][25]

He competed in the -93 kg/205 lb tournament at Legend 2: Invasion in Moscow, Russia on November 9, 2013, taking a unanimous decision over Melvin Manhoef in the semi-finals. He was set to fight Pavel Zhuravlev in the final but was unable to do so due to a cut and was replaced by Agron Preteni.[26][27][28]

Returning to the ring for the first time in eight months, Samedov scored a 21-second high kick knockout over Stefan Leko on the undercard of the Ruslan Chagaev vs. Fres Oquendo boxing match in Grozny, Russia on July 6, 2014.[29]